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could now avoid 41 miles of crowded suburbia en route as any other form of transport. A hotly debated election
to orthern California. This left Soledad with only a only two years earlier had led to a subsidy of $602,000
handful of predominantly late-night movements, re- to the SP by Los Angeles which, at the time, feared that
quiring an equally small percentage of railroaders em- the railroad would otherwise route its mainline through
ployed with SP's Los Angeles Division to handle them. San Bernardino, some 50 miles to the east. Dr. David
The few railfans who even knew of Soledad's camera Burbank alone sold a 100-foot-wide, 14,000-foot-long
qualities followed the course of change to find new plot to the SP for one dollar as part of the early and
stomping grounds, probably settling into Cajon Pass to very eager inducement red carpet treatment. Although
record Espee action that by all rights should have been the Southern Pacific originally contracted to link up
hauled via the Saugus Line. directly with L.A. once past the Tehachapis, a more
The Old Road, you say? ... Yes indeed. immediate path by way of Cajon Pass and San Bernar-
dino to the long-term destination of Yuma, Arizona, did
in fact become more desirable to avoid costly tunnel
work through the San Fernando Mountain north of
The 1870s-Building the Rail Link Los Angeles. Besides, sailing vessels already served the
scanty wharves of San Pedro Harbor, and a branch line
S TEADILY ADVANCING ITS STEEL ARM could always be extended west from San Bernardino if
needed.
south between a cleft in the Tehachapi Mountains,
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (as it was The Cajon Pass had long since been claimed by the
called in 1874) was the dread of nearly all of the 10,000 Los Angeles & Independence Railroad, forerunner of
citizens of early Los Angeles. A modest yet domineer- the eventual Santa Fe invasion and SP's only local rival.
ing network of SPRR trackage was already in place In January of 1875, the LA&IRR ensured its control of
throughout L.A. County, and once tied with the the pass by breaking ground in the narrow Blue Cut
approaching main trunk, it would virtually wipe out all Canyon region of Cajon's lower half. There was room
competition from horsedrawn wagon freighters as well enough for only one track through Blue Cut, and SP

Headed to Colton via the cutoff line over Cajon Pass, an eastbound train is just clearing the
switch at Palmdale as a westbound Saugus line local holds its ground on a 1.4% descending
grade. - BRUCE KELLY

PA IFIC NEWS • 9